Robert Quinn was a Freedom Party organizer in Baroyeca, Sonora. Though a white English-speaker, Quinn spoke Spanish fluently and was sensitive to the Hispanic culture of Baroyeca. He was also successful as an advocate for public works projects in the region. The combination of these two factors made Quinn an effective recruiter, and the Freedom Party became Baroyeca's dominant political organization during his time there.

In 1943, as the United States and the Confederate States were locked in the Second Great War, Quinn left Baroyeca and joined the Confederate Army. Given both his age and his importance to the Freedom Party, this was a clear sign that the CS Army was beginning to grow shorthanded.

After the defeat of the Confederacy in 1944, Quinn surreptitiously returned to Baroyeca to illegally keep the Freedom Party going as an underground organization. Alarmed at the inevitable cost of such a plan, Jorge Rodriguez secretly informed on Quinn to the occupying U.S. authorities, who arrested him, much to the anger of Pedro Rodriguez and to the personal anguish of Jorge himself.